Tell Your Senators What You Think of Their Vote on the Durbin Amendment!

We alerted you on Wednesday, May 23rd, that Sen. Richard Durbin [D-IL] was going to propose an amendment (S.AMDT 2127) to the pending FDA Safety and Innovation Act (S.3187) that was a partial resurrection of his 2011 bill, The Dietary Supplement Labeling Act.

Thanks to the efforts of CFH and its supporters, as well as allies in the health freedom movement, that bill was soundly defeated last year.

We are happy to announce that you did it again! In a vote the day after we alerted you to this threat, the U.S. Senate responded to our collective voice and voted 77 to 20 to table the amendment, removing it from consideration in the overall bill. (The bill moves to a debate in the House of Representatives next week).

While it is always important to take action on issues that are important to us, our families and our health freedoms, it is also extremely important to thank our legislators for doing the right thing (when they listen to their constituents) and to reproach them (respectfully) when they do not—as this is the essence of participatory democracy.

Stay tuned for further calls to action if this amendment is re-inserted on the House side and for other issues (where we we will ask for your support or opposition, as the case may be).

Special thanks to Senator Orrin Hatch [R-UT] who noted in comments on the Senate floor prior to Thursday’s vote that Durbin’s amendment was “based on the misguided presumption that the current regulatory framework for dietary supplements is flawed and that the FDA lacks authority to regulate these products.” Hatch went on to say that the amendment “serves to punish all responsible companies with its overreaching mandates.”

Vice President and Senior Policy Advisor of Citizens for Health and a principal of Gormley NPI Consulting, James Gormley served as the Editor-in-Chief of "Better Nutrition" magazine and Editorial Director of the Vitamin Retailer Magazine group. He also served as the Scientific and Regulatory Affairs officer for Nutrition 21 and attended Codex Alimentarius meetings in Paris and Rome. An award-winning blogger and author of six books, including "Health at Gunpoint: The FDA’s Silent War Against Health Freedom," Gormley has been a leading consumer health advocate for nearly 20 years.

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